The Mounties call to me...

Its my last day of work before we head to the north for family fun and relaxation. While I'm hoping the vacation is relaxing, preparing for it certainly isn't, especially with a baby in tow. We're going to get to the airport really early to give ourselves time to deal with problems, should they arise, so I'm sure it will be fine.

I'm re-reading The Great Gatsby. I read it in high school, and I enjoyed it, but being forced to read something always makes it at least 50% less enjoyable.

Tonight, we'll be packing and organizing, tidying the house, and hopefully getting to bed incredibly early. Tomorrow, long before the ass crack of dawn, we'll be waking up and headed to Canada. I doubt I'll be blogging while we're gone but I'll be back on the 15th so expect a big ol' Socialist, liberal, tirade on the 16th.

Until then, may all your bowels move smoothly.

You really can make a weapon out of anything!! :-)

I think the funniest thing I've said so far today is "Joel Osteen's version of what Jesus would want or think is the equivalent of someone saying 'If Martin Luther King Jr. were here today, I'm sure he'd tell us all to kill whitey.'"

Got some recording done last night, more vocals and guitars and Jeff laid down drums for another song. Coming along, coming along. I can't wait to get all the horns, strings and extra singers on it. Its going to sound HUGE. I wish we had more pictures from the process but alas, "wish in one hand, shit in the other..."

Leah still isn't feeling well, so we've cancelled our plans for tonight so she can have more of a day to relax. I think she's just starting a cold so hopefully, she'll be feeling better before Friday when we head off to the great white north. I can't wait to get back to Toronto, its one of my favorite cities, I just hope Harper is cool on the plane. She probably will be.

Leah and I decided that, in our house, we would have a rule for dealing with inflamed emotions. The rule is "If its a big enough deal to be affected by, its a big enough deal to talk about. If its not a big enough deal to talk about, then its not a big enough deal to be affected by." We wanted to establish this rule early because eventually, Harper will be a teenage girl, and I think this rule will help deal with all of that...stuff. That being said, I'm wondering if I'm already in conflict with my wonderful rule. I have some old friends that, one way or another, have hurt my feelings but I've never said anything about it because I never get to see them, and when I do see them, I'm just glad to see them. Lately, I've been wondering if it would benefit anyone to call their attention to it, or not. I'm not actively angry at anyone, its just disappointing to feel like you must've cared about someone more than they cared about you.

I digress.

I haven't heard the new Weezer record yet, except for the first single, "I want you to". Not having heard it, I can't comment on its quality, but I think Pitchfork has Rivers Cuomo pegged. My hopes are not high for this once saviour-esque band to ever return to their former glory. But where Weezer and Star Wars are concerned, Cameron would say I'm like the abusive husband who says he loves his wife but runs her down all the time. Maybe so. Or maybe Rivers Cuomo should start taking himself more seriously, and George Lucas should realize that just because you can make an entire world with a computer doesn't mean that you should and also that you can't CGI good acting or directing.

I'm so glad I got through high school before the term "Frienemies" was coined.

Halloween is such a weird holiday, when you think about it. Really, the whole culture of "fear as entertainment" is strange. Personally, I've never enjoyed the feeling of fear and anxiety, so movies like The Strangers or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are lost on me as a source of enjoyment. Oh well...takes all kinds, I suppose.

We had a great (and full) weekend. Saturday, we woke up early to prepare for family pictures with a really nice lady that Leah knows somehow, who happens to do really awesome child and family photography. After that, I went to Matt's where he and I spent several hours recording. At 4:30, I left to go home so we could get to our friends' house by 5:30 for dinner and trick or treating.

Sunday, Leah was supposed to go hiking but woke up with her throat feeling closed off and sore. So we rested and took it easy but around 12:30 I headed to Matt's to do some more recording. At 3:30, had to drop what we were doing and rush home for even more family pictures with Leah's friend Lindsay, which turned out pretty friggin' amazing.




Recording is going really well, now that we're actually dedicating time to it. As it turns out, Matt and I work really well together. All of us do, really, but no one else was really around this weekend. Both of Jeff's tracks so far have been really strong as well. There is such an obvious difference between an actual drummer's take and the take of someone who can play drums but rarely does, IE me.

Anyway, I'm actually becoming more excited about this EP than I expected to be. So, you know...That's a plus.

Faith, and sex, and god in the belly of a black winged bird.

I didn't blog yesterday because I pretty much had the office to myself so I used the day to watch both Kill Bill movies and several episodes of Futurama. So, as you can see, I was busy.

Last night we went downtown for a Halloween party that our friend's company was throwing at a club. I don't thrive at parties but Leah loves to dance and its really cute to watch even if I don't feel like dancing.

Yesterday, on the radio, they were talking briefly about angels and more specifically, guardian angels. I remember hearing that the concept of "guardian angels" isn't scriptural, so I looked into it and its really not. A lot of people were calling into the radio station saying that they believe in angels and they believe everyone has someone watching out for them and other feel gooderies. Why do so many Christians think they've got guardian angels when their holy book doesn't even tell them that they have. It definitely mentions angels, but the concept of having one assigned to every person is something else entirely. We've all seen the "Don't drive faster than your angel can fly" bumper stickers. The notion is heavily present in our culture.

I get it, its comforting, but is it good to be comforted by things that aren't really there?

Once upon a time, I found myself with a lot of suicidal thoughts. I arrived at this place, largely, because I'd spent the lion's share of my time on the idea that god had a plan for my life and was involved to the extent that he was lending a hand to make that plan work out, and I was seeing for the first time that it was a real possibility that that was not the case. I didn't leave the faith immediately. No, that was just the beginning. I fought tooth and nail with reason to hold onto some form of the idea of a comforting deity. Now, years later, I look back at that time and realize that I didn't get through it because some guardian angel carried me, I got through it because those were the moments that I began to realize that I had to take responsibility for myself. (Also, I had great friends and family and a crush on a girl who would become my wife.) My life, my happiness, my failures, my successes, these are all things that are my responsibility. When I do something bad, its not because the devil tempted me, its because I can be an asshole. When I do something that's noble or selfless, kudos to me.

In my old age, I find myself taking issue with any religion teaching people that they are somehow inherently flawed from birth. "You're born a condemned person who can't possibly be good on your own, only our god can SAVE you." I'm, of course, not saying that people are perfect, but not being perfect doesn't mean that we're flawed in our design (for lack of a better term). No religionist would tell you that raccoons are born flawed and until they hear about Jesus(or Mohamed or Xenu) they're doomed. If there is a god, all the evidence points to the fact that he/she/it/they spent just as much time and care on the raccoon as they did on the human. To me, it just seems like an unhealthy way to think about one's self.

But...I could be wrong. What do I know?

"Losing my life to a whore with disease," I said, "Please... I'm a humble guy with healthy desires. Don't gimme no shit because I've been tired!"

I don't have much to say. Every new picture I see of Lindsay Lohan looks like there is less and less moisture in her body. Does she appear to be shrivelling to anyone else?

Got a lot of guitar done last night for "How Do You Do It?" and "Things You Already Know" for the new EP. Also recorded a guide track so that Jeff can lay down the drums for "If You Want," when he has the time. Its sounding great, thus far. Looking forward to a relaxing night at home.

I said, "Losing my penis to a whore with disease. Just kidding." I said, "Losing my life to a whore with disease." She said, "Excuse me, please?"

Today at the office there's a seminar about new software going on, so all the adjusters are busy with that all day. The pros: free BBQ from Rudy's. The cons: my boss's boss is here so even though he's an easy going, nice guy, there's always an added stress to constantly look busy. So that's why I'm blogging very quietly instead of shouting every word as I type it, like I normally do.

Tonight is our first focused recording session for the Songs For Staying In EP. I say "focused" because up til now we've just been recording little bits here and there whenever we had a free moment between shows and rehearsals. The result is having a depressingly small amount marked off on our "To Do" checklist. Now instead of rehearsals we've got weekly recording sessions, so we should have this knocked out in no time.

Cameron and I have started talking about a film project that I think could be very cool. We're talking about a documentary of sorts that would, essentially, be about spirituality in songwriting. We would document the making of the third Quiet Company record and interlace it with interviews with songwriters who often have spiritual themes. My goal is to get people like David Bazan, Tim Kasher from Cursive, Davy Baysinger from Bleach, Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou, etc. So you see, people on both sides of the coin. I'd love to talk to David and Tim about their journey into dissolution and I'd love to ask Davy and Aaron some of the questions that poked holes in my faith. Not because I want to ruin their faith but just because they're both people/songwriters I really respect and I'm curious to know why they believe what they do. I don't know Aaron but I know Davy really well and a more genuine person you'd be hard pressed to find. Who we get would probably be less contingent on what I want, and more on who tours through Austin, though. What songwriters would you want to ask questions about their faith or their lack thereof.

"Let's go. Let's sit. Let's talk. Politics go so good with beer, and while we're at it, baby, why don't you tell me one of your biggest fears?"

Once again the weekend has come and gone and I'm back at my desk, staring at a screen for 8 hours. This weekend was seriously great. Our show at the Parish on Friday was about as good as we could ask for. Granted, it wasn't perfect. Tommy invited a lot of his coworkers from the gym and I'm not sure if they were just really drunk or just normally really obnoxious. They just screamed "Tommy" over and over, at the top of their lungs, at the end of songs, in the middle of songs, it didn't matter. The staff told them to keep it down, other people in the crowd told them to keep it down, Tommy shushed them once. I guess when your Affliction shirt looks that good, you don't have to listen to anybody. I just kept thinking, "Where do these assholes think they are?" because they were acting like they were at some frat party or a sleazy dance club. Their support was so abrasive it might as well have been heckling. So if you were at the show and your experience was lessened because of them, we apologize. In hindsight, I wish I'd just told them to shut the f**k up or get the f**k out, but I didn't want to piss off Tommy. Later he told me that I could've and should've said it so...now I know.

Anyway.

I want to say that all the extra musicians were amazing and we are so thankful for everyone helping out. I should also mention that Leah sang in our choir and apparently felt the need to orchestrate some impromptu interpretive dancing for said choir. Yeah, she's a keeper.

The next night we did a secret show at a fashion show that was also a benefit for PetsAlive which is a group advocating for all No Kill animal shelters in Austin. It was fun and there were topless girls covered in body paint and a fire dancer so Austin was keeping it weird. I'm not sure how good we sounded but I think everyone had a good time.

Now we're done with shows for about a month so we're focusing on finishing the EP. I'm really anxious to get it out of the way, but I do think its going to be pretty good, even if its composed mostly of leftovers.

Leah, Harper, and I were supposed to take family pictures tonight but the rain has put a stop to that. Rainy days like this are great if you can stay home, nap, and watch movies in bed; They're pretty shitty when you actually have to get up and go to work. I am looking forward to this cold front, though, and a night of staying in and relaxing with my two favorite females on the planet.